


The Possibility Of A New Friend

by afteriwake



Series: Lingering Winter [15]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 11:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hitsugaya decides to renew his acquaintance with Karin after she arrives in Soul Society.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Possibility Of A New Friend

“Hey! Kids! Your brother’s here, and he’s got company!” Ganju yelled out in the hallway. Neither girl came out. “Yuzu might be in the kitchen and Karin’s…somewhere.”

“How are they doing?” Ichigo asked.

“I think because they came here at the same time they’re okay. Yuzu’s doing better than Karin, though.” He shrugged. “I was born here, I didn’t die to get here, so I have no clue what it’s like.”

“Yeah,” Ichigo said.

“Ichigo!” Yuzu called out from a doorway.

“Yup, she was in the kitchen,” Ganju said.

Yuzu came up and gave her brother a hug. “Did I hear you say we had company?”

He nodded. “Matsumoto wanted to see this place, and her Captain came along to keep her out of trouble, and then my Lieutenant is here, too.”

“I better make some more food, then,” Yuzu said with a nod.

“You make more than enough for all of us,” Ganju said with a grin.

“But this is a big deal, Ganju-san,” she replied. “It’s kind of like a party.”

“Well, take a couple minutes and say hello first,” Ichigo said with a grin of his own. “They haven’t seen you in years.”

“Okay,” she said. “Where are they?”

“They’re waiting outside,” Ichigo said, heading back to the steps. “I wanted to make sure you two were here first.”

“Karin’s outside somewhere,” Yuzu said with a slight frown. “She does that a lot, going outside for hours at a time.”

Ichigo frowned as well. “Ganju said Karin’s not doing as well.”

“She misses her friends, and she misses soccer games,” she replied. “Most people stay away from here, even though Kuukaku-san stopped moving the house, so she never has anyone around to even ask to play.”

“That sucks,” he said. “Well, maybe we can figure something out. Who knows? She could introduce it to the shinigami or something, if they don’t already know what it is.”

Yuzu giggled. “That could be interesting.”

The siblings talked about various thing as they began the long trek up the stairs to get Ichigo’s friends. When he got to the top and looked outside he saw Matsumoto and Hinamori but not Hitsugaya. “Hey, where’d he go?” Ichigo asked.

Matsumoto waved her hand. “Off there, somewhere. He said he’d be back soon.”

Ichigo shrugged slightly. “Guess he can come down later, then.” He looked at Yuzu. “You remember Matsumoto and Hinamori, right?”

Yuzu nodded and smiled at them. “You’ve gotten a little taller, Hinamori-san,” she said.

Hinamori smiled. “You should see Hitsugaya-kun now. He’s tall.”

“I thought you didn’t get taller,” Yuzu said.

“Generally the way it works is that you grow until you’ve stabilized your spiritual pressure,” Matsumoto said. “Hinamori and Hitsugaya had done most of their growing before they graduated from the academy, but they finished completely over the last five years, and they both had growth spurts before that happened.” And then she smiled. “Hitsugaya had a couple, actually. We all thought he’d look like a kid for the rest of his life, but apparently we were wrong. He looks about your age now, maybe a little older.”

“I can’t wait to see,” Yuzu said. “He was kind of a cute kid.”

“Well, I can admit, seeing as how I’m married, that he grew into a very attractive man,” Matsumoto said.

“I think he’s cute, too,” Hinamori said with a grin.

“You’re not supposed to say stuff like that,” Matsumoto said with a laugh. “You’re in a relationship with someone else.”

“So are you.”

“Yes, but I’m _married_ , and a mother. Hisagi-san doesn’t need to worry that I’ll abandon him for my Captain.”

“You’re a mother?” Yuzu asked, her eyes wide.

“Yes. Her name is Aiko,” she said with a smile. “She’s almost five years old.”

“You’ll have to tell me about her,” Yuzu said.

“Hey, why don’t you take them inside?” Ichigo said to Yuzu. “I’m going to go find Toshiro.”

“Okay!” Yuzu said. The two women followed her down the stairs, and Ichigo went looking for Hitsugaya.

\--

“Are you Kurosaki’s sister?”

Karin looked up at the tall man shinigami robes. He had on white Captain’s garb that she had seen on Ichigo when he came to visit after she had gotten to the Shiba residence, but he didn’t look familiar to her at all. “Yeah,” she said. “Who are you?”

He blinked for a moment. “You do not remember me?” And then he shook his head. “I have grown quite a bit since I met you.”

Her eyes widened as recognition set in. “You’re…um…Hitsugaya, right?”

He nodded. “Captain Hitsugaya, yes.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re really big on the Captain bit, from what Ichigo’s said.”

“And yet he _still_ calls me by my first name,” he grumbled.

She laughed a bit. “He does that to a lot of people he met here, I’ve noticed.” She stood up. “What are you doing here?”

“My Lieutenant wanted to visit along with your brother and his Lieutenant, and I decided to keep her out of trouble.”

“Ah,” she said with a nod.

“Why are you out here?” he asked.

“I like the quiet,” she said with a shrug. “Ganju and his friends can be loud. And besides, it’s nice out here.”

“Did you continue to play soccer?” he asked.

She nodded. “I got even better at it than you were,” she said. Then she sighed. “I miss playing it. And I miss my friends.”

“Has Urahara made the same offer to you that he made to Kurosaki?”

She nodded. “It’s not the same, though. And I don’t want to go do what Ichigo did for the last few years. It’s not worth it.” She looked around. “We should head back now.”

He nodded as well. “I understand what it’s like to be lonely,” he said.

She looked at him. “You do?”

“Yes,” he said. “It is hard being a young Captain, especially as young as I am.”

“You don’t look young any more. You look sixteen or so, like me.”

“I grew some more before my spiritual pressure stabilized,” he said with a slight shrug. “I don’t think I’ll grow any more than this.” He offered her his hand and she took it. He helped her up and waited as she brushed the dirt off her clothes.

“I think you look better now than you were as a kid.” She paused. “I mean, when you looked like a kid. You weren’t _really_ a kid back then.”

He smiled slightly. “No, I was not.”

“How come you aren’t with everyone else?” she asked as she began to walk back towards her new home.

“Matsumoto wouldn’t stop talking and it was giving me a headache,” he said. “I thought I could use some peace and quiet for a moment.”

“That’s a good place to get some peace and quiet,” she said with a nod, giving him a smile. “If you ever come back and you want to escape the place, you’re welcome to go visit that spot. I may even keep you company, if you want.”

He nodded slightly. “I think I would like that.”

“Good,” she said. “It might be nice to have someone to talk to around here that I’m not related to. It’s a crowded house, and I’m happy to have all my family there except Ichigo and my father, but…”

“You want someone else to talk to,” he said.

“Exactly!” she said with a warm smile.

“If that is the case, perhaps I could visit from time to time.”

“I think I’d like that,” she said with a nod. “Would you mind playing soccer with me? I miss doing that. And you’re good. Or you were good, at any rate.”

“I don’t see why not,” he said with a nod. “It was an interesting match, even without the attack from the Hollow.”

“Cool,” she said.

“Karin! Toshiro!” Ichigo called over to them. “Where have you guys been?”

“Somewhere away from Ganju and his friends!” Karin called back. “They’re too loud.”

“Yeah, well, didn’t you remember I was going to show up today?”

“I _did_ but you weren’t here and I wanted some peace and quiet,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I can walk back there on my own, by the way. I don’t need you escorting me.”

Ichigo looked at her, shrugged, and turned around, heading back the way he came.

“Sometimes I wish he wasn’t my big brother,” she said. “And other times I hate the fact that he’s not around all the time now that we’re all together again.”

“Things have not been as busy lately,” Hitsugaya said. “Perhaps you can convince him to visit more.”

She shrugged. “I guess.” Then she looked at him. “The whole thing I said about walking back on my own without an escort, that didn’t apply to you. Just him.”

Hitsugaya smiled slightly. “I thought that was the case.”

“I must have sounded so stupid when I said that, though, like I was a whiny toddler or something.”

“No, you sounded like an annoyed sister who didn’t want her older brother hovering,” he said.

“Which is exactly what the situation is,” she said with a nod and a laugh. “We might as well hurry up, though. I get the feeling that Yuzu’s going to be making a lot of food and I guess I should help.”

He nodded. “Very well.” They picked up the pace and within a few moments were back at the Shiba residence. “There’s a lot of steps,” he said as she opened the door.

“This is why once I go out I stay out for a long time,” she said with a grin. “I hate climbing all these stairs.”

“It reminds me of part of Seireitei,” he said. “It should not be a problem.”

“That’s good,” she said with a nod. “I’d say I’d race you to the bottom but we might kill ourselves doing that.”

“Yes, most likely,” he said as they began to make their way down. “That would be a bad thing, to break our necks because of a misstep.”

“Yeah, it would.” She glanced over at him and grinned. “Thank you.”

“For what?” he said, surprised.

“For offering to come visit. It’ll be nice to have someone to talk to.”

He nodded. “Yes, I believe it will as well.” With that they lapsed into silence, and it dawned on him that perhaps his letting his guard down may be a good thing in the long run. He considered Hinamori and Matsumoto his friends, but it would be nice to have another, especially one who was not a shinigami. Yes, this could turn out to be a very good thing indeed.


End file.
